Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Avella & Comrie make borough president candidacies official

State Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) has decided to throw his hat into next year’s race for Queens borough president, the lawmaker told TimesLedger Newspapers Monday.

Avella was rumored to be mulling a run for months, but made up his mind in the wake of Superstorm Sandy, he said, after witnessing the borough being passed over for recovery resources that went to Manhattan and Brooklyn instead.

“I thought we should have had a much more active borough president and much more of a coordinating effort from the office of the borough president,” Avella said. “That convinced me Queens needs a voice.”

Avella is fresh off winning re-election to his northeast Queens seat earlier this month, where he captured nearly 60,000 votes, according to records from the city Board of Elections, a number the lawmaker believes makes capturing the boroughwide spot viable.

There are many things the three-term lawmaker and head of the Queens delegation has on his agenda. First and foremost, after witnessing the effects of Hurricane Sandy and hearing that meteorologists are predicting that such a storm could hit twice a year in the future, Comrie is naturally concerned about disaster preparation.

He wants to re-examine the flood zone maps, and possibly revamp them to better reflect the likelihood of more communities being in a storm’s path. Also, Comrie wants to make sure there is a strategy to quickly and effectively deploy assistance to those affected.

“Even our B areas can be impacted by an A Zone,” Comrie said, referring to the city flood zones where residents were not evacuated as they were in Zone A. “Superstorm Sandy created a high tide situation for 24 hours and impacted our B areas.

We need to work with the state and federal government to fight for the best courses of action to protect the shoreline and fortify resources.”

One cannot talk about the borough of Queens without mentioning its cultural diversity, something Comrie said should be celebrated publicly and spoken about more in schools.

In addition, Comrie wants to create more opportunities to educate Queens communities in an effort to make people more sensitive to different ethnicities. Part of that effort includes promoting volunteerism and parental participation in education as well as hosting public forums and other culturally-oriented events.

Deputy BP Grodenchick has the inside track for the Party endorsement, while Melinda has the Developers $$ support. What chance do Avella and Comrie have to raise adequate funds, even with matching funds?

Deputy BP Grodenchick has the inside track for the Party endorsement, while Melinda has the Developers $$ support. What chance do Avella and Comrie have to raise adequate funds, even with matching funds?

Even if Barry was not in the race, Tony would not have gotten the party endorsement - he made too many enemies as a City Councilman. For Tony to win, he has to run as an outsider and be highly critical of the party machinery. Of course, Tony has ties to the Stavisky machine, so he may not be able to pull off claiming to be an outsider - but he has certainly been a maverick.

Avella is a honest, hard working and grassroots. We knocked out the money buying of the Presidential election. So number one, get your butts out and vote in the primary because whoever wins is what get - plain and simple.

Tony is virtually unknown in southeast Queens, or any other part of Queens. He's known well among white voters, but that's about it. And in a primary with three white candidates, he doesn't stand a chance.

Sorry, what I meant to say was is what you get if you don't vote in the primary. I also hope you get the point of how important it is to vote in the primarys, other wise you are just wasting time blowing hot air

Look at the different priorities: Avella paying attention to the practicalities of the lessons from the storm surge, Comrie wanting to educate people as to diversity ... um, Mr. Comrie, ya know, I think people know about diversity just fine ...

So I guess Comrie has bought into the Archie Bunker stereotypes of Queens that he wants to lecture everyone about cultural diversity. What century is he living in? Maybe the question is really what borough is he living in? There are always prejudiced individuals and those who cling to their "own kind" for whatever reason, but making the promotion of cultural diversity a cornerstone of a possible borough presidency is laughable when there are more pressing matters to pursue.

What is needed is a candidate who is willing to revolutionize the role of borough president, and the fact that Avella recognizes that Marshal and her cronies have done little to energize and revitalize our borough makes me want to root him on.

"In addition, Comrie wants to create more opportunities to educate Queens communities in an effort to make people more sensitive to different ethnicities".

Ah, here is an idea. How about opportunities to educate different ethnicities how to dispose of garbarge/trash property, put lids on garbage containers, clean-up in front of your sidewalk and street curb, cut the small patches of grass in front of your home and if you are in business, learn some customer service skills. Queens may be a very diverse community, but it is still the USA, not some shithole third world country or some flop house. I am very sensitive, sensitive to the new batch of immigrants who treat Queens like a garbage dump.

My vote goes to Tony, an honest politician who actually gives a shit about Queens as opposed to the others who just whore out the borough to every john.

Avella: Popular as a Councilmember, even more popular and higher vote-getter as a State Senator. Has reached out to just about every corner of Queens for the last decade. Well-known and liked by voters across ethnic lines for willing to take on issues that their own politicians ignore or are on the take, making him disliked/hated by most other pols - but not voters!

Vallone: Strong in Astoria/LIC and maybe with some of those with Italian heritage in northeast Queens. However, a lot of the ones he's counting on in Whitestone/Flushing/Bayside are registered Republicans. Limited appeal elsewhere.

Grodenchik: Will only be popular with *some* Queens Machine voters and perhaps a segment of the Jewish vote. Bland.

Katz: Forest Hills/Kew Gardens and other Jewish voters will be her base. Reviled in other parts of the borough for being a handmaiden for the development lobby. Will make bones about being the only woman in the race.

Peralta: Will do well in the Hispanic community but absolutely limited appeal elsewhere. Avella beat him by 15,000 votes in the vote total last month. And, most of Queens has never heard of him.

Comrie: Some strength in southeast Queens but not well-liked outside of his strongholds of St. Albans, Hollis and Cambria Heights. Hated by many in Laurelton, Rosedale and Far Rockaway. Severely disliked elsewhere in the borough for his rudeness and pro-development at any cost-stance. Anti-charismatic, to say the least.

Comrie also has the baggage of his wife, Marcia Moxam Comrie - who writes a weekly column in Mike Schenklers's Press of Southeast Queens (a sister publication of the Queens Tribune). She writes abour anything and everything EXCEPT the fact that her boss Schenkler accepts ads for Queens prostitution services.

You mean to tell me that Councilman Comrie's wife, Marcia Moxam Comrie, wearing the hat of a highly-paid public relations flack at York College which elevates young African-American women to high aspirations also wears the hat of denigrating young Asian-American women by "winking her eye" at Mike Schenkler's Queens Tribune Asian women whore ads?

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